Stephen Wolfram considers if numbers are actually required, the use of symbolics and the potential for the growing role of computational irreducibility.
I would’ve expected the article to lean more into the concept of a “thing” already being kind of optional. A thing is just a cloud of atoms that happen to exist in a relatively stable constellation.
But what if an alien race actually rather perceives things as just such a cloud or as some sort statistical peak, because they simply perceive the world very differently (e.g. from x-rays, smells or sound waves).
For them, a flock of sheep wouldn’t be 23 individual sheep. It would probably just be one big cloud of sheep material. I mean, maybe they would count the number of liters or assign some sort of number to the statistical significance, but maybe they also just have different names for different cloud sizes and such.
I would’ve expected the article to lean more into the concept of a “thing” already being kind of optional. A thing is just a cloud of atoms that happen to exist in a relatively stable constellation.
But what if an alien race actually rather perceives things as just such a cloud or as some sort statistical peak, because they simply perceive the world very differently (e.g. from x-rays, smells or sound waves).
For them, a flock of sheep wouldn’t be 23 individual sheep. It would probably just be one big cloud of sheep material. I mean, maybe they would count the number of liters or assign some sort of number to the statistical significance, but maybe they also just have different names for different cloud sizes and such.